Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Once more with chutzpah is the story of Tally and her twin, Max, going on a student exchange trip to Israel. They're Jewish teens who struggle with feeling "Jewish enough" and what it actually means to be Jewish. Something happened back home about six months ago, and Tally and Max are both still healing and grieving from that time. Tally hopes this trip to Israel will pull Max out of his depression and make him magically well enough to submit all of his college applications.

This story was a truly heartfelt story about family, identity, friendship, first love, mental health, and grief. I related a lot to Tally's descriptions of anxiety, and I think those sections were done really well. I won't speak to the sections about Jewish/queer rep since those aren't identities I claim.
Haley Neil did a great job of making the stakes all feel so high-- I remember how it felt to be in love for the first time as a teen and to be alone, away from home. Those are big emotions and I truly felt like Haley described those scenes how I would have when I was 18. I'm incredibly impressed with her writing skills.

It's also worth mentioning that a lot of changes were made in this title from February 2021 til now. Haley Neil listened to critiques about her original plotline of a teen going on a Birthright trip and change the premise to be a school/temple trip instead. This inherently changes a lot of the context of the story and removes the Israeli propaganda element of the scenario. Haley also did a good job talking about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and how it's very complex, but Israel is currently doing wrong by Palestinians. I truly think Haley did a great job of listening to very valid criticisms and making this a story that represents her experience without discrediting the experiences of others. Obviously, take my review with a grain of salt since I am not Israeli, Jewish, or Palestinian.

The narrator for this title was fabulous and I would love to listen to more audiobooks narrated by her.

4.5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so absolutely brilliant. Josie doesn't shy away from showing all the ugly pieces of aging and being sick, and especially of trying to overcome cancer. Cancer treatment is no joke and a lot of times, stories try to gloss over the ugly bits to show a victorious survivor or a tragic victim. Keira was neither. Keira was such a strong character while also being wonderfully flawed. She discovers she has breast cancer and immediately starts trying to figure out how to cope, keep her marriage strong, not freak out her children, keep her beloved business a success, and deal with the feelings/opinions/grief of her friends, coworkers, and family. It's a lot to deal with!!

Keira unintentionally befriends another woman who has breast cancer and goes jogging to try to keep fit. Keira decides to join one day, and thus the bright side running club is born. It's a small group of women who currently have or have overcome breast cancer. They encourage one another, show up on treatment days with flowers, and help give advice. It's the sweetest example of building community and truly being there for one another.

I enjoyed the subplot with Keira's work and her manager who is slowly overstepping her bounds and trying to push Keira out of her own business. Something shady is definitely going on, but Keira is struggling to figure out if she's just being sensitive, if she has chemo brain, or if there really is something sinister. This subplot was probably my favorite part of the book.

All of our main characters were well-written and distinctive. I could easily tell apart the women in the running club and I found Keira, her husband, her kids, and the running club to all be incredibly believable. They had reactions that made sense and their motivations were within character. This is such a tricky line to walk with so many main characters, and especially when dealing with a heavy topic like this.

The audio was delightful to listen to-- the narrator has a lovely British accent, which I always find enjoyable in an audio title.

The only reason I didn't give this a full 5 stars is because I felt it was a little bit repetitive. I think we could have cut about 30-45 minutes of the audiobook and still had the same impact.

3.5

2.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I don't have much to say about this title. I learned some interesting things about insects and climate change, but the overall narrative of the story was completely disjointed and hard to follow. I felt like every time the author wanted to make a point, he used 12 scenarios to make his point when 2-3 would have sufficed.

In addition to being hard to follow, the narrator wasn't great. He narrated the book like it was a soap opera and not a nonfiction title about climate change and insect population crash. It was hard to take the content seriously when the narrator was so melodramatic.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this title unless you're a huge science nerd, and even then I would recommend this as a physical read and not an audio one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I really just didn't like this book. I felt like the rhymes and the story were super childish, but at the same time, the content about dance clubs and some of the illustrations (including nudity!) were super adult and not really for children. I am so confused about the audience for this book. Is it for children? Is it one of those "funny" books that parents are supposed to enjoy reading to kids?

The art in this book was like it was made in MS paint. Sometimes a silly story can be boosted by phenomenal art, but this is NOT one of those cases.

Overall, I thought this book was dumb and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The lobotomist's wife is about Ruth Emeraldine and her husband Robert. Robert is a research scientist who helped to pioneer the lobotomy in the US. He figured out how to make the lobotomy into the "ice pick" procedure we all know about now. In the beginning, Ruth thought Robert was a genius and was completely on his side-- but after so many well-respected individuals bring up concerns, Ruth has no choice but to do whatever it takes to stop her husband.

My biggest problem with this book is that it was just way too long. Even though it was a shorter story, it still was too long. This story would have been really successful as a novella that alternated chapters between Ruth and Margaret. It would have kept up the pace of the story and also got us to the big climax at a much more reasonable time. As written, the climax didn't happen until the last 10% of the book and it should have happened much sooner.

There are parts of this book that I definitely enjoyed, but I think it was just average for me. I'm interested in seeing what else Woodruff writes in the future-- she has a lot of potential. This one just didn't quite do it for me.

4.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Y'all. I was so not prepared for how much this story would infiltrate my heart. This title is perfect for people who love Taylor Jenkins Reid. For such a short novel, it packed a huge emotional punch.

It took me a while to get used to the way the story is told-- we are jumping around in time back and forth with Jim, the father, and then several of his children as time passes. It was confusing for a little bit because there are SO many characters in this family. But after listening for about an hour or so, each character stood out to me in a different way. They were each so different from one another and were easily distinguishable. They had completely different voices and responded to their familial trauma in different ways.

I would highly recommend this to other readers who love family drama stories. I will be purchasing this title in my next bookshop.org purchase because I enjoyed it so much.

The narrator was great-- I would definitely seek out more titles narrated by her.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This title was just supremely 'meh' for me. There wasn't inherently anything *wrong* with it... it just wasn't for me. I thought this was going to be a book that included a few stories about animals who saved humans and then would focus a lot on the biology and psychology from animal research. Overall, this was just an amalgamation of stories about animals doing nice things. Some of them had to do with animals rescuing humans, but a lot of them weren't. I'm sorry, but I don't care about rats saving other rats. And that's not what I thought this book was going to be about.

I'm also a bit confused because this title seems like it is meant for an adult audience, but a lot of the way it was written was relatively juvenile. Who is this book for? I'm not sure.

Hayden Panetierre was *fine* as the narrator. Nothing special; nothing horrible. Her narration was really slow though. I did have to speed up the title significantly because she narrates much more slowly than most other audiobook narrators.